Love, for eternity
by BrittanyJenAnn
Summary: When Gibbs proposes, Abby says No. She's not the marriage type.


He was down on one knee in front of her, and her breath caught suddenly. He was going to propose. The familiar feeling of fear that had gripped her the two other times men had proposed to her presented itself, causing her to feel completely claustrophobic.

He smiled at her, that same smile that had caused her to fall in love with him, and started to talk.

"Abs?" He stopped and cleared his throat, starting again.

"Abby Sciuto, will you marry me?"

She stared at him, wondering if he'd listened to her ever. She couldn't count the number of times she'd made it clear to anyone listening that she wasn't the marrying type.

"I…." What did she say now?

He looked so confident that she would say yes, but she couldn't say it. Marrying anyone meant giving up her freedom, it meant giving them that chance to control her completely. Visions of her various stalkers swam before her eyes.

"Gibbs, I…"

He arched an eyebrow, still waiting.

She was glad that he had waited to do this at his house, and not at the expensive restaurant they had been at an hour earlier.

"I can't."

Now that she had started, the words came out in a rush,

"You know me Gibbs! I'm me! Abigail Sciuto! I've never wanted to get married, not even when I was a little girl. And, I still don't want to get married. Can't we just keep doing what we've been doing?"

In an effort to sort it out, she stood, walked past him and started pacing in his living room.

"I mean, we've been perfectly happy, haven't we? Dates on the weekends we don't work, nights at your house in between. What more is there to want? I can't walk down the aisle. I'm not that type of girl. Look at me! Do you see me in a White wedding dress walking down the aisle? In front of hundreds of people? I don't think you realize I kind of get stage fright sometimes and I know I'd get it then. Then there's the whole business of writing vows and…"

She trailed off, stopping to turn to look at him.

"Gibbs.."

He had stood and put the ring away while she ranted.

"I just… can't." He said nothing, just looked at her. Feeling very claustrophobic and awkward, she grabbed her purse, she couldn't bear to look at him, to see the disappointment and sadness.

"I have to go. I'll… see you at work."

When she arrived home, she'd began crying because she knew she'd hurt the person she loved most.

There was only one person she could talk to that could possibly help, so she signed into Skype and saw that her mother was online.

"_Momma?"_

"_Abby! Dear, how are you?" _

"_I'm… not good. Gibbs asked me to marry him."_

"_And you don't love him." _

"_No, I do, but.." _

"_Then why not marry him?" _

"_Because marriages don't always end up happy. More people seem to stay together without being married. I'm not the marriage type." _

"_And what exactly is the marriage type Abigail? Waking up next to the one you love? Making dinner with them? Having someone to hold you when you're sad? Having someone to go home to at the end of the day, when you're worn out from work?" _

Abby sighed. _"You don't understand Momma." _

"_You are right, I do not understand. What will you tell your kids? How will you explain it?"_

"_Kids? Momma, I don't think.." _

"_Have you asked him?" _

"_No, but his past…" _

"_Means nothing for his future. Talk to him baby." _

The conversation shifted, to regular topics and by the time they finished talking, it was almost midnight.

On a regular night that Abby was staying at her apartment and not with Gibbs, she'd call him before bed and they'd talk until she was tired enough to fall asleep, but tonight she couldn't face him, even over the phone.

She got ready for bed and laid there, buried under the covers trying to figure out what was so great about marriage.

If you could have all the same things without being married, why get married?

Plagued by the image of Gibbs' face as she said no, she fell into a dreamful sleep.

_She was sitting in a chair, two small kids playing at her feet. Gibbs' enters the room and the kids started shrieking, throwing themselves at him, "Daddy! Daddy!" _

Abby woke with a start, the clock said five, but she knew she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.

She showered and dressed, and made it work shortly after six. She busied herself running dna from cold cases until a fresh case came in, just after ten.

Gibbs came to see her around twelve, holding a large Caf-Pow! In front him as a peace offering.

He set it down in front of her and asked, as he always had,

"What do you got Abs?"

Relieved that it was going to be professional, she filled him in on the details she had so far. When she had finished, he didn't leave, and she swallowed hard.

"Come over to my place tonight. We need to talk."

She nodded and he left before she could speak.

The day passed by agonizingly slow, the earlier case had been open and shut, which gave her nothing to do with the rest of her day, causing her to think of the look on his face from the night before.

She cringed again, and looked at the clock. It was nearly six, but she didn't want to leave yet.

She didn't know when Gibbs would be done and she didn't want to wait at his house for hours.

Everyone had commented on the lack of music in the lab today, but she had wanted to really think about everything, and even though her music usually helped her, today it had annoyed her.

When Gibbs finally came down to see if she was still there, she had fallen asleep on the futon in the back room.

He woke her carefully, and she looked around groggily.

"You okay to drive?" He looked concerned and she nodded,

"I'll be fine. Let's go."

She followed the speed limit exactly, using all of her concentration to make sure the speedometer needle stayed exactly where it was supposed to be.

It occupied her mind enough that she was completely calm until she pulled in front of his house.

The lights were already on, and through the front window she could Gibbs' form sitting in a chair with a beer in one hand.

Abby walked in, hesitantly, not sure if she could go through with this. He looked up as she entered and motioned for her to come over.

He stood and hugged her, just like he'd done a million times before.

She sighed and hugged him back, inhaling his familiar sawdust scent, feeling instantly comforted and okay.

He didn't say anything for a long time, just held her tight, breathing into her hair, comforting himself as much as her.

Finally, he spoke. "Abs?"

"I talked to my mom last night."

"And?"

"She says that marriage is having someone to hold you at night, to comfort you when you're sad, to help you in the rough times, but…"

"You think there's something else."

"Yeah. There has to be, otherwise, why would marriages end so often?"

She looked up into his calm blue eyes and he looked down at her, moving them so they were sitting on the couch, Abby curled into his side as he contemplated the question.

"You gotta be compatible. You're not, it falls apart."

"So all these failed marriages are because people weren't compatible?" He shrugged,

"Seems like you are, but you'd make better friends. Like you and McGee." She nodded,

"We're great friends, but not as anything else. It would never work."

"But if you thought it would, and you tried and got married, only to find out it wouldn't.." He trailed off, letting her work out the end of the thought.

"How do we know we're compatible? How do we know that if we get married, this won't fall apart?"

"If it's going to fall apart, it will, whether we're married or not."

"But, what if we don't want the same things?"

"What do you want Abs?"

She thought about this,

"I want…" The dream she'd had in the night came to the front of her mind,

"I want to be happy. I want kids one day. Not now, not right away, maybe not even in a few years, but someday… I want to be with you."

He turned to look directly at her, "And if I told you, I want the same thing, would you marry me then? Or do you have some terrible pent up anger against marriage?"

She laughed lightly at the tone in his voice.

"I never pictured myself getting married… I never wanted a big wedding, with a white dress."

"Then we'll do a courthouse wedding. We can have a party sometime for your mom and my dad, and the rest of the team."

Abby was warming up to the idea, "No white dress?"

He kissed her forehead, "Wear whatever you want. I'm already dressed."

She laughed, "We can't do this tonight. How about Saturday? Two days. It gives me time to find something suitable to wear."

She looked at him thoughtfully, "Did you mean it? That someday, you'd want a child or two? Even after…"

He nodded slowly "I'm always going to miss them, Abs. But I'm always going to love you, and I think that kids, sometime, is okay."

She threw her arms around him, grinning. "I love you, a lot."

"Love you too Abs."

He kissed her slowly, then pulled back and reached into his pocket, pulling out the ring box.

He opened it and she looked down to see a beautiful gold ring with a black onyx jewel in the middle.

"We can get a diamond ring for the real wedding band."

She shook her head, pulling the ring out and looking at it, trying her hardest not to cry.

"I love it. It's perfect."

He grinned and took it from her, sliding it onto her finger. She held out her hand and stared it for a long moment, then she hugged him again.

"It's wonderful. You knew exactly what I wanted."

He hugged her back, grinning into her hair.

Two days later, Abby was ready and waiting when she heard the knock on her apartment door.

She opened the door to see Gibbs standing there in his usual suit.

"Morning Abs."

"Good morning." She grinned and threw her arms around him.

She was wearing an old fashioned type black dress, with her hair in a more fancy version of pigtails.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes." She locked the door and took the arm he offered her.

"Good morning Miss Abby." Abby turned to smile at the elderly man sitting outside his apartment.

"Good morning Sir Louis. I'm getting married today!"

"Oh, that's wonderful Miss Abby."

When they made it to the car, Abby was surprised to see a small bouquet of black and white roses sitting the front seat.

"Aww, Gibbs, I love them."

They made it to the courthouse shortly but before they entered, Gibbs stopped her and began to speak,

"You know the something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue?" She nodded.

"Your ring is new, and this fits the other descriptions."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a beautiful sapphire blue brooch, that had a black sprig of flowers inside. Abby's eyes widened as she realized what it was,

"My mother's here? That's aunt May's old brooch, did she mail it to you? She wouldn't do that. She must be here."

He grinned and watched as she fastened it on her collar.

"She's at Ducky's house, waiting for us. We're having dinner over there tonight."

Abby hugged him again, grinning. "You are so amazing."

He smiled and they entered the courthouse.

When they left, forty-five minutes later, they were husband and wife.

They made it to Ducky's house and Abby saw all of the team's cars, as well as Jackson Gibbs' car out front.

Unable to wait, Abby rushed ahead, hugging her mother tightly, barely able to sign fast enough to speak.

Her mother laughed and stopped her, hugging her again before moving on to hug Gibbs.

"You got yourself a fine wife here, Jethro. It's too bad I'm so old, I would've snatched her up."

Gibbs laughed, "I'm sure you would have Dad."

The entire night was spent with laughter and fun, as they ate and talked and enjoyed themselves.

Abby's mother was going to stay at Ducky's for a few days, so she and Abby made plans to get together.

"_See?" _Abby's mother signed, _"You don't have to change your life just because you're married." _

"_I realize that now, Momma." _Abby smiled up at Gibbs who had appeared behind her mother, "You ready to go?"

He turned to sign to Abby's mother, _"I hope you don't mind if I take my bride away for the night." _

Abby's mother grinned, and waved them off.

Much to Gibbs' annoyance, someone, Abby suspected Tony, had tied cans to the back of his car and he stopped once they were out of the neighborhood to unfasten them with a dangerous look on his face. He muttered something about head slapping the culprit, causing Abby to burst into peals of laughter.

When they made it to the house, Abby was almost inside when Gibbs grabbed her and picked her up, carrying her across the threshold.

She laughed and kissed him, leaving no mystery as to what she wanted from him….


End file.
